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On Monday evening, Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics broke through to the NBA Finals for the second time in three years with a narrow road win over the Indiana Pacers in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference Finals series. Surprisingly enough, three out of the four games in this series came down to the wire, but ultimately, the Celtics showed their maturity and experience down the stretch of those contests, with Tatum (mostly) steering clear the Kobe Bryant-esque crunch time fadeways that have driven Celtics fans crazy over the years and instead executing the offense efficiently.
The Celtics have now compiled a record of 12-2 in these playoffs so far en route to the Finals, although it should be noted that every team they've faced so far has been missing its best player for either all or a significant portion of those series. Still, winning playoff games is never an easy task, especially on the road, where Boston is now 6-0 in this postseason.
One person who is not so convinced that the Celtics' success so far in these playoffs will translate to the NBA Finals is none other than FS1 sports media personality Skip Bayless, who recently took to Undisputed to relay his concerns.
“(The Celtics have) not been fire tested yet,” said Bayless, via UNDISPUTED on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter. “…(They have) played down to the level of competition that was almost always without its best player at every step of the way. It should be concerning to you if not downright flat out scary to you that these games kept going down to the wire because they shouldn't have, especially if you take Tyrese Haliburton away…”
The Celtics can't please everyone
Thus far in NBA media circles in these playoffs, there seem to have been two narratives thrown around about the Celtics: Number one, that they can't perform under the pressure of close game scenarios. Or, number two: that they play down to the level of their competition and should be blowing these teams out every night.
Well, the Celtics just won three games this series in crunch time situations vs the Pacers, which has predictably shifted the narrative from “they can't finish close games” to “why are these games close to begin with?” Essentially, no matter what the Celtics do, there will be no winning in the national consciousness's eyes.
However, all that matters for Boston right now is their chances of winning Banner 18, which they will be favored to do regardless of whether they are matched up with the Dallas Mavericks or the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Finals (it will be the Mavericks).
Making matters even more favorable for the Celtics is that they now have ten (!) days off until the Finals begin, meaning that they will have a chance to give center Kristaps Porzingis even more rest as he tries to recover from a calf injury sustained in Game 4 of the series vs the Miami Heat.
Game 1 of the Finals is slated for (next) Thursday evening.
